Return Notes, Oneshots and Sequel Update, Schedule and New Projects
We're Back True Believers! It's Ghost and Miracle here, and we're thrilled to say that we have returned from our honeymoon, and that means our stories are coming off hiatus and kicking back into gear.
What's not so thrilling, is what we came home to. Red skies, smoke so thick you couldn't see more than a block ahead of you, over 6000 homes lost, 34 dead, and 18,636,000 hectares burnt. Sydney University has estimated that more than 480 million animals have died since September as a result of the fires. Our country, our home is on fire, and the people in power refuse to do anything to fix the problem, instead taking vacations to Hawaii and signing deals to bulldoze Koala sanctuaries.
Now, we can't do much on our own, but what we can do and have done is donate to the hundreds of volunteer firefighters who have been out in the bush fighting the good fight. These guys are real heroes, real legends and any cent you can afford helps them, the thousands of animals being treated in animal hospitals, and the people whose livelihoods have been destroyed. If you want to donate, remove the spaces from links below:
www . firefightaustralia . com . au
www. rspca . org . au/
www . australiawildlifefund . com
www . redcross . org . au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate
Updating Schedule:
Harry Potter and the Shards of Heaven - Every two weeks on Sunday afternoons American Eastern Time starting February 16th (Monday mornings Australian Eastern Time starting February 17th)
New Content - Alternating weeks with Shards. First piece - A Light in the Darkness Part 2 - release date: February 23rd
Monthly Gemini Curse Oneshot - First Sunday afternoon US of every month.
Harry Potter and the Blessing of the Phoenix - Coming Soon...
Blessing of the Phoenix - Update
You'll notice that Blessing of the Phoenix does not have a firm release date above. That's because, after considerable thought, we've decided to rewrite a significant portion of what we have to greatly alter a specific plotline. Things were just getting too convoluted, so we decided to delay this specific plot element further down the road in order to focus more on the central premise of the story. As such, Blessing - which we originally planned to release in March - is going to be delayed for a while. We refuse to post something that isn't perfect. We hope you guys understand. Hopefully, we'll have the revision done soon.
We do have a number of the one-shots ready for you guys though, so don't fret too much.
March Oneshot: President Bartlet
April Oneshot: Fitz and Simmons
May Oneshot: Lily and Jessica's birth or Harry and Ginny's first expedition into space (undecided)
June Oneshot: Lily and Jessica's birth or Harry and Ginny's first expedition into space (undecided)
July Oneshot: The destruction of the planet Tamaran.
Also, out of curiosity, we've written an essay on the history and political structure of the Federated Kingdoms Ghost wrote for his Poly-Sci class that we might post if anyone is interested.
Now, because we feel bad for delaying it, here's the second draft of the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Blessing of the Phoenix...
The Ruins of Hogwarts Castle, Scotland
May 15th, 2006
Hermione Granger shifted from foot to foot as her team made the final checks. She itched to do them herself, but she didn't have the time to check every function personally. Not at this scale.
She was trying to ignore the fact that she was standing in the ruins of what had once been considered the greatest magical school of all time. Her school. She had grown up here. Now…
From her position on the raised platform they'd built in the Entrance Courtyard, Hermione had a commanding view of the entire castle. Or what was left of it. The large central tower that housed the grand staircase had a gaping hole in the ceiling, and both the Headmaster's tower and Gryffindor Tower were just gone; the Clocktower was missing both the clock and the tower; and the east wing had lost an entire wall, the hallways inside easily visible. The Viaduct bridge had collapsed into the Black Lake, and the place where the Greenhouses had been was now a crater. She had taken a walk down to Hagrid's Hut when she'd arrived and hadn't been surprised to find nothing but a circle of ash. She could even see the path of dragon fire Charlie, Will and Clarissa had carved through the Forbidden Forest. But the piece of damage that haunted her the most, the place she refused to even glance at, was the central copula – where the sixth and seventh-floor corridors had once been. Both floors were gone now, consumed by the destruction of the Room of Requirement. When Jessica… When Jess had…
She swallowed, refocussing herself on the Divining Rod.
It was a massive machine, shaped like a tripod with a radar-dish affixed to the top. And by massive, she meant it easily covered the entire courtyard. The dish itself was built of copper and was lined with thirty-nine runes patterned in a circle. Pointing up from the centre of the dish was a twenty-five-metre-long rod of Vibranium, as thick as Hermione's wrist. Vibranium. The amount of money it had taken to buy that made her brain swim. It was the first purchase that had ever caused a visible decrease in the size of the gold piles in Harry's vault; that was how expensive it was. But it would work. It had to work.
This was not the first time Hermione had attempted this particular experiment. In fact, she had tried it fifteen times in the past nine years – this being the sixteenth. Every time, the machine had failed. Every time, except the first.
It had been a day not unlike this one. Clear skies, a cool chill on the wind, her friends around her, the Black Lake glimmering in the distance. Only the machine they had used that day had been small enough to fit on a desk, and the friends that had been with her then – Gwen Stacy and Luna Lovegood – were long dead.
People in Hermione's life had a tendency to leave her, one way or another. She had grown used to that years ago. It was one of the physical constants of her existence. She was a world-famous witch and a renowned and award-winning scholar. She had official qualifications from five magical universities and honorary ones from three more. And everyone who became close to her either died or abandoned her.
Defender. Hero. Warrior. Scientist. Legend. Murderer.
She had discovered the Source. The origin point of all magical energy in the universe. In the Multiverse even. She had found it, one morning on a Hogwarts roof-top beside Luna Lovegood and Gwen Stacy, with a rickety machine cobbled together mostly from cheap cast-offs and scrap.
That was how she would be remembered. Not for all the death she left in her wake, but for discovery and wonder.
And now she was going to do it again.
She could sense it still. Over her shoulder. A silvery light hovering just out of sight and awareness. Waiting for her to surrender herself to its power. She'd exposed herself to something that day; herself and Luna. Now Luna was gone, and Hermione was getting ready to open up that pit of mystery and magic once more, regardless of the danger or stupidity of the action.
She just couldn't bring herself to care.
"Ready!" Hermione called into her microphone. It was a muggle device, with an amp beside it to send her voice out across the ruined courtyard. With the Hogwarts wards destroyed in the battle, electrical technology had begun working in the structure again. The team had elected to use that instead of magic, less they mess up the experiment.
Her team began to check-in. Parvati and Padma were monitoring output levels at the control centre behind her. American techno-mage Hank Mccoy and his assistant Katherine Pryde (one of Ginny's friends) were stationed in a secure bunker beside the nuclear reactor they'd be using to power the machine – encased within several feet of stone beneath them for safety purposes. The final wizards in their team were ex-Triwizard champions Peter Parker of Ilvermorny and Claire O'Neill of Alcheringa. Claire – a Mer woman from Australia – manned the emergency shut-off in the Ravenclaw Common Room – warded to the nth degree. Peter was hanging from the top of the Vibranium rod by a single finger as he checked the housings for the receptacle – a giant Heliodor. Peter Parker: ex-Defender and long-time friend of Hermione's. He was also, secretly, the New York superhero known as Spider-Man. Hermione herself had helped him build the devices attached to his wrists that allowed him to traverse so easily – web-shooters.
That comprised the magical contingent of their group. As per Ginny's agreement with the American government, SHIELD had loaned Hermione a team of scientists – and security guards, though why they were needed she wasn't sure – to help her with her research. She begrudgingly admitted that they were slightly smarter than her when it came to advanced physics. The leader of the scientists was one Reed Richards, an older man whose hair was starting to go grey at the temples. He and his co-scientist, Susan Storm, were currently inside one of SHIELD's 'Quinjets', hovering over the Window.
The Window. This was why she was sure the experiment would work this time. During the final battle, which had occurred in this very spot, Voldemort – realising his impending defeat – had attempted to summon the Great Destroyer: a cosmic being of infinite destruction and ruin. Luna had, somehow – Hermione had never managed to replicate what the girl had done – channelled massive amounts of power directly from the Source to seal the Destroyer back into his prison in the Dark Multiverse. They'd thought that was the end of it. They'd been wrong.
Hermione had first discovered the giant crack in reality now hovering above the Entrance Courtyard when she'd returned to Hogwarts for the five-year anniversary of Voldemort's defeat. Back then it had been small, a tiny fold in reality that she'd only been able to sense through her own connection to the Source. Now, three years later, it had grown to almost twice that size. To Hermione, it looked like a giant scar cutting across the sky, glowing red, steaming white gaseous light seeping through it. To everyone else, it appeared as a ripple in the air, like looking at a cracked mirror.
If she performed the experiment here, it would work. She was certain of it.
Peter jumped off the Vibranium spire and used his webbing to swing up to Hermione's raised position. He had forgone his Spider-Man paraphernalia today – everyone here knew who he was anyway. Instead, he was wearing a lab-coat like Hermione, and he wore an eager expression on his face that she hadn't seen… well since he and Mary Jane had stopped talking three months ago.
Hermione knew what had happened of course – when Peter had refused to tell her, she'd simply called MJ. Long story short, she had failed in her attempts to get the pair to reconcile. But, knowing them, some crisis would emerge to push them back together, so she wasn't overly worried.
"Housings are ready," Peter said, before switching on the second microphone on Hermione's console – the one that connected to the Quinjet.
"Dr Richards? Is your equipment ready?"
"All functioning at 100% efficiency, Mr Parker. We're ready to proceed."
Good. Time to do this.
"On the count of three then," Hermione announced, moving to grip a silver lever on the console. The floating dicta-quills and digital screens stood ready beside her.
"One."
She glanced over her shoulder at the Patil twins, who both gave her big thumbs up.
"Two."
Peter pulled a pair of plastic goggles over his face, his glasses fitting awkwardly beneath them.
"Three."
Hermione pulled the lever, and the runes around the copper dish lit up a dazzling white. Blue energy pulsed up the Vibranium spire, rushing towards the Window, which had begun pulsing in rhythm with the machine. A heaviness settled around them, as if gravity had suddenly increased, weighing them down. Colours began to blur, and Hermione thought she caught a glimpse of something… beyond. A sunless sky, a sea of red mist, and a being of radiant light looking back at her.
An ear splintering shriek screamed out through Hogwarts, and the mist from the Window touched the spire and the gemstone affixed to the top.
The machine exploded.
The Window ripped open with a horrible shattering sound, and a shockwave blasted Hermione, Peter and the Patils from the command post, rocketing them over the cliffside and into the dark abyss below.
If anyone had been conscious to see it, a great being of cosmic fire, shaped like a giant bird of prey, broke through the Window. It hovered for a moment above the ruins, then vanished into ash.
Just a little taster of what you can expect down the line. Until then, see you on the first Sunday of March!
Love, Ghost and Miracle.
